FPF Archive

Introduction On September 13, 2019, the California State Legislature passed the final CCPA amendments of 2019. Governor Newsom is expected to sign the recently passed CCPA amendments into law in advance of his October 13, 2019 deadline. Yesterday, proponents of the original CCPA ballot initiative released the text of a new initiative (The California Privacy […]

Under the radar of ongoing debates over the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the California Senate Judiciary Committee will also soon be considering, at a July 9th hearing, an unusual sectoral privacy bill regulating “smart speakers.” AB-1395 would amend California’s existing laws to add new restrictions for “smart speaker devices,” defined as standalone devices “with […]

On Friday, the Future of Privacy Forum submitted comments to the Office of the California Attorney General (AG), Xavier Becerra. Read FPF’s Full Comments (11-page letter) See Attachment 1: Comparing Privacy Laws: GDPR vs. CCPA See Attachment 2: A Visual Guide to Practical De-identification In FPF’s outreach to the AG, we commended the office for its […]

Today, the Future of Privacy Forum released a new study, Understanding Corporate Data Sharing Decisions: Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities for Sharing Corporate Data with Researchers. In this report, we aim to contribute to the literature by seeking the “ground truth” from the corporate sector about the challenges they encounter when they consider making data available for academic research. We hope that the impressions and insights gained from this first look at the issue will help formulate further research questions, inform the dialogue between key stakeholders, and identify constructive next steps and areas for further action and investment.

Washington, DC – Today, the Future of Privacy Forum released a new study, Understanding Corporate Data Sharing Decisions: Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities for Sharing Corporate Data with Researchers. In this report, FPF reveals findings from research and interviews with experts in the academic and industry communities. Three main areas are discussed: 1) The extent to which leading companies make data available to support published research that contributes to public knowledge; 2) Why and how companies share data for academic research; and 3) The risks companies perceive to be associated with such sharing, as well as their strategies for mitigating those risks.

Jules Polonetsky, CEO, Future of Privacy Forum, Omer Tene, Senior Fellow, Future of Privacy Forum, and Daniel Goroff, Vice President and Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation authored a paper titled Privacy Protective Research: Facilitating Ethically Responsible Access to Administrative Data. This paper will be featured in an upcoming edition of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Future of Privacy Forum is pleased to announce it has published the inaugural issue of the Privacy Scholarship Reporter. This regular newsletter will highlight recent privacy research and is published by the Privacy Research and Data Responsibility Network (RCN), an FPF initiative supported by the National Science Foundation.

Searching for effective methods and frameworks of de-identification often looks like chasing the Golden Goose of privacy law. For each answer that claims to unlock the question of anonymisation, there seems to be a counter-answer that declares anonymisation dead. In an attempt to de-mystify this race and un-tangle de-identification in practical ways, the Future of Privacy Forum and the Brussels Privacy Hub joined forces to organize the Brussels Symposium on De-identification – “Identifiability: Policy and Practical Solutions for Anonymisation and Pseudonymisation”.

Last week, FPF brought together a panel of technology, legal, regulatory, and business voices to discuss “The Law and Science of De-Identification” at the 10th annual Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference.